This is the season of major tennis tournaments. So a phrase is likely to be in common use, and the Prime Minister should ponder its meaning: “unforced error”. There have been two of those in recent days. As a result, there has been a needless expenditure of political capital.
When it comes to foreign aid, a measure of scepticism is justified. A generation ago, Peter Bauer said that foreign aid was often a donation from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. There is a good reason why a lot of third-world countries have remained mired in poverty: misgovernment. Over the years, a lot of the aid sent to those countries has been embezzled by the mis-governors, much of it ending up in Switzerland, which does not need foreign aid. But this is not a reason to slash the budget. Instead, the donors should work to ensure that it is deployed effectively.
